There has been an increased demand to allow client-based software applications to access different channels of information at servers. Since such client-based applications generally run on a client computer within a browser application (for example, Internet Explorer), and communicate with the server using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), techniques that support channel-based communication over protocols such as HTTP are of particular interest. One example of such a channel-based technology is the Bayeux protocol, described in further detail in “Bayeux Protocol—Bayeux 1.0 draft 1”, published by the Dojo Foundation, and incorporated herein by reference. Bayeux describes a protocol for transporting asynchronous messages with low latency, primarily over HTTP. Messages are routed via named channels, and can be delivered from: (a) server to client, (b) client to server, or (c) client to client. The Bayeux protocol can be used to provide responsive user interactions for web clients, including for example, Ajax or similar clients, and “server push” techniques. However, the Bayeux technology does not address anything other than the client-server protocol specification, and in particular does not provide for any changes to the server technology to make better and use of channel-based client-server communications. This is the area that embodiments of the present invention are generally designed to address.